The Real Romney

Two journalists have published a book they have been working on for five years, The Real Romney. Here are some things they found: (via http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/01/18/The-Real-Mitt-Romney-What-You-Didnt-Know.aspx#page1

• Romney, a chauffeur, briefly while in college, loved tinkering with cars. Perhaps as a result, he believes that almost anything can “be taken apart, studied and re-engineered.”
• He was viewed as such a skilled leader during his first year of college at Stanford University that “you wanted Mitt on whatever committee or group you were [working on]. He would take charge and lead it,” according to a former roommate, Mark Marquess.
• He earned his degree in English Lit in 1971 with highest honors from Brigham Young University, going beyond his own father, George Romney, former governor of Michigan, who never graduated from college.
• Mitt Romney attended Harvard’s business and law schools simultaneously in a demanding four-year program. He graduated in 1975 with honors from the law school and was a Baker Scholar at the business school, in the top five percent of his class.
• When his kids were growing up, the roles in the Romney household between dad and mom were very clearly defined. “I was willing to change the urine-soaked diapers,” the authors quote Romney as saying, “but the messier types gave me dry heaves… So my wife allowed me to escape that.”
• Ann Romney, whom he pursued relentlessly until she agreed to marry him (she converted to Mormonism as well), remains “his chief counselor and confidante.” (She was diagnosed with MS in 1998, and is now in remission.) “‘Mitt’s not going to do something that they don’t feel good about together,’ said Mitt’s sister Jane.”
• When Romney was just 36 years old and a “business consulting star,” people thought of him as “mature beyond his years and organized to a fault.” He seemed “brilliant but not cocky.” More than one partner told Bill Bain, “This guy is going to be president of the United States someday.”
• When Bain first asked Romney to become head of a new company to be called Bain Capital – a firm that made millions – Romney “explained to Bain that he didn’t want to risk his position, earnings, and reputation on an experiment.”
  
  So, “Bain sweetened the pot.” If all of this failed, Romney was told he’d get his old job and salary back, “plus any raises he would have earned during his absence.” Not a bad deal. But Romney still didn’t take it. He was worried about the “impact on his reputation if he proved unable to do the job.” So Bain came back with another deal sweetener. He promised that, if necessary, “he would craft a cover story saying that Romney’s return to Bain & Company was needed because of his value as a consultant.”
  
  This time, according to Kranish/Helman, “Romney said yes.”
• While serving as a Mormon missionary in Le Havre, France, after his freshman year of college, Romney was hit head-on by a drunken driver and was thrown from the vehicle. One of the five passengers died. A policeman believed Romney was dead and wrote “il est mort” on his passport. Later, according to U.S. News, he was found to be alive by Sargent Shriver, a friend of his father and the U.S. ambassador to France at the time. Largely as a result of this incident, Romney believes that life is fragile and that one’s time on this earth should be spent meaningfully.
• He’s warm and charming with family and close friends, but he comes across as stiff and “all business” to others. According to Kranish/Helman, “He has little patience for idle chatter or small talk, little interest in mingling at cocktail parties, at social functions, or even in a crowded hallway. He [has] little desire to know who people are and what makes them tick.” 
• He is altruistic, generous to those in need. Countless times, he has gone out of his way to help other families through rough patches.